"In heaven, all the policemen are British, all of the lovers are Italian, all of the chefs are French, all of the cars are German, and the whole thing is run by the Swiss.
In hell, all of the policemen are German, all of the lovers are Swiss, all of the chefs are British, all of the cars are French, and the whole thing is run by the Italians."
— Traditional Joke
Stereotypes regarding people of specific nationalities. Some of them are a little bit Truth in Television (certain others more so), due to having some basis in reality. But remember, stereotypes are either half-true or dishonest exaggerations; nations are not Planets of Hats where everyone always look and act the same, and there are always differences and exceptions within groups. If anything, the true face of the country in question is often either not as expected or entirely different.
This page serves as an index of tropes pertaining to any kind of ethnic/national/racial stereotyping. Please see Analysis.National Stereotypes to read more detailed, in-depth information about overall stereotypes.
Tropes:
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General
Main topic:
Related indexes:
- But Not Too Foreign
- Captain Ethnic: A superhero whose theme is their ethnicity or nationality.
- The Chief's Daughter
- Child of Two Worlds
- Crazy Cultural Comparison
- Cultural Cringe
- Culture Clash: Someone experiences culture shock when visiting a very unfamiliar country.
- Culture Equals Costume
- Developing Nations Lack Cities: Third-world countries have no big cities.
- Dirty Foreigner
- Ethnic Menial Labor: Poor laborers and servants are often depicted as being ethnic minorities (especially foreign immigrants).
- Ethnic Scrappy: A character who is disliked by the audience for being an offensive ethnic/national/racial stereotype.
- Foreign Exchange Student: An international student who is temporarily staying in another country to attend classes at a local school.
- Foreign Queasine: Foreign food is gross.
- Foreign Wrestling Heel
- Funny Foreigner: A foreign character who provides comic relief with their bizarre customs and obliviousness of how things are in the country where they reside.
- Generic Ethnic Crime Gang: Criminal organizations are often composed mostly or entirely of crooks from a specific ethnic group.
- Metro-Specific Underworld: Criminal gangs who are associated with a particular city or region.
- Ruthless Foreign Gangsters: Mobsters from another country are even more scary than the local gangsters are.
- Hollywood Cuisine
- Hollywood Natives: Stereotypical aboriginal/indigenous/native tribes.
- An Immigrant's Tale
- International Showdown by Proxy
- Made in Country X
- Misaimed Stereotyping: A joke where a character invokes a stereotype against a different ethnic group from the one the stereotype is usually associated with.
- Mistaken Ethnicity: Incorrect guesses about where someone or their ancestors came from.
- Mistaken for Foreigner: Someone who is a native citizen is wrongly assumed by others to be a foreign national in their own country.
- Mistaken Nationality: Incorrect guesses about which country someone is from.
- National Animal Stereotypes: National Stereotypes meet Animal Stereotypes.
- Nations as People: Anthropomorphic Personifications of entire countries.
- Non-Specifically Foreign: A character is established as being from another country, but it is not specified which country they are from.
- The Old Country
- Patriotic Fervor: When the citizens of a particular country are stereotyped as all being fanatical nationalists.
- Phenotype Stereotype
- Quirky Neighbour Country
- Regional Riff: Stock theme music which represents a particular country or region.
- Savage Piercings
- Stock Foreign Name: The most common names associated with people of specific nationalities.
Africans
- African Terrorists
- Africa Is a Country: All of (usually just Sub-Saharan) Africa is treated like just one big generic nation with interchangeable cultures.
- Amoral Afrikaner
- Blackface
- Bulungi
- Darkest Africa
- Egypt Is Still Ancient
- Qurac: If a North African one.
African Americans
- "Angry Black Man" Stereotype: Black men who are highly temperamental, especially in regards to perceived racism.
- Black and Nerdy: A black nerd.
- Blackface
- Black Is Bigger in Bed
- Black Jezebel Stereotype
- Magical Negro
- Malcolm Xerox
- Mammy
- Sassy Black Woman: Black women have attitude and make sassy remarks.
- Scary Black Man
- Uncle Tomfoolery: Using ethnic stereotypes for an attempt at comedy.
Americans
Sub-index:
- The All-American Boy
- All-American Face: An American wrestler who is the Face and has Patriotic Fervor for Eagleland.
- America Saves the Day: The USA portrayed as the main good guys ready to solve any global crisis.
- America Won World War II: American contributions to the Allied victory in World War II are exaggerated to the point of downplaying the other Allied powers' roles.
- America Takes Over the World: When the USA is no longer content with being the most powerful country in the world, they decide to make themselves the only sovereign nation controlling everyone and everything.
- Americans Are Cowboys
- Angry White Man: White men who feel like they're oppressed by minorities.
- Big Applesauce: Stereotypical portrayals of New York City as a place where all kinds of amazing things can happen.
- The Big Rotten Apple: NYC is stereotyped as a Wretched Hive of scum and villainy.
- Brooklyn Rage: Ill-tempered denizens of Brooklyn, New York.
- The Big Easy
- Corny Nebraska: Nebraska's claim to fame? Corn… Lots of it.
- Deep South: Stereotypical depictions of rural regions of the Southeastern United States, and the people who live there.
- Eagleland: Portrayals and parodies of the United States, affectionate or critical, from other countries.
- Everything is Big in Texas
- Everytown, America
- Fast-Food Nation: America is a land of cheap junk food, hence the rising obesity rates in recent decades.
- Fat, Sweaty Southerner in a White Suit
- The Friendly Texan
- Gangsterland: American cities protrayed as havens for street gangs and organized crime.
- Good Ol' Boy
- Gun Nut: While obsessive firearms enthusiasts can come from anywhere, in the context of national stereotypes, they're almost always American citizens.
- Hawaiian-Shirted Tourist
- Horrible Hollywood
- It Came from Beverly Hills
- Italian-American Caricature
- Joisey: Stereotypical residents of New Jersey.
- Minnesota Nice
- Only in Florida: Weird things always happen in Florida, usually caused by the insane antics of local Florida men.
- Only in Miami
- Ragin' Cajun
- Salem Is Witch Country
- The Savage South
- Simple Country Lawyer
- Small-Town Tyrant: Southern authority figures are evil.
- Soccer-Hating Americans
- Southern Belle
- Southern-Fried Genius: A genius with a Southern accent.
- Southern-Fried Private: A soldier with a Southern accent.
- Southern Gentleman
- Southern Gothic
- Suburban Gothic
- Tipis and Totem Poles
- "Ugly American" Stereotype
- Valley Girl
- Wacky Americans Have Wacky Names
- White Anglo-Saxon Protestant
- The Wild West
- Wild West Armadillo
Argentinians
Australians
- Awesome Aussie: An Australian who is badass.
- The Bogan: An Australian who is crass and abrasive.
- Kangaroos Represent Australia
- Land Down Under
Austrians
- Herr Doktor: An Austrian doctor.
- Yodel Land
Brazilians
Brits
- Britain Is Only England: Britain and England are considered synonymous.
- Britain Is Only London
- British Rockstar
- British Stuffiness
- British Teeth: The stereotype that British people have bad dental problems.
- Brits Love Tea
- Evil Brit: A British villain.
- A Foggy Day in London Town: England and/or London, or all of Britain for that matter, is perpetually damp and foggy.
- I Am Very British: The stereotype that all non-Cockney British people speak posh.
- Quintessential British Gentleman: A hero or other good-aligned character who is British.
- Lower-Class Lout: The cultural direct opposite to the stereotype directly above.
- Northern Irish and Nasty
- Smart People Speak the Queen's English
- Stiff Upper Lip
Canadians
- Canadian Equals Hockey Fan: Being Canadian automatically means you love hockey.
- Courteous Canadian: Canadians portrayed as overly nice and well-mannered.
- Crass Canuck: The Stereotype Flip of a nice Canadian.
- Moose and Maple Syrup: Canadian stereotypes.
- Singing Mountie
Caribbean
Central Asians
Chinese
Sub-index:
Dutch
(East) Asians
Sub-index:
- All Asians Know Martial Arts: The stereotype that being Asian automatically means that you know martial arts.
- All Asians Wear Conical Straw Hats: Asians are stereotyped as all wearing large straw hats, which were historically mostly worn by farmers.
- Asian Airhead: An aversion of the trope that Asians are all highly educated by showing an Asian who is ditzy.
- Asian and Nerdy: Asians are stereotyped as being very intelligent, or at least studious.
- Asian Buck Teeth: A Discredited Trope where Asians, often men, are stereotyped as having large and ugly buck teeth.
- Asian Cleaver Fever: Asian chefs like to show off their dexterity when using a knife to cut up food.
- Asian Drivers: Stereotypically Asians are bad drivers, or at least risk-taking ones (Drives Like Crazy, but Asian).
- Asian Hooker Stereotype: Asian women are stereotyped as being sex workers, perhaps street prostitutes or working in dubiously-legal massage parlours (see Happy-Ending Massage).
- Asian Rudeness: Asians are often stereotyped as being highly polite and having complex etiquette, but at other times they're instead shown as jerks.
- Asians Eat Pets: The stereotype that Asians cook and eat cats or dogs even in Western countries where this is culturally taboo.
- Asian Speekee Engrish: Asians are often shown speaking in butchered English, unless perhaps they have grown up or been educated in a Western country.
- Asian Store-Owner: Asian immigrants.
- Dragon Lady: Stock character of an Asian woman who is both sexy and dangerous, a more exoticized take on the Femme Fatale.
- Dragons Up the Yin Yang
- Far East Asian Terrorists
- Inscrutable Oriental: Asians stereotypically show little outward emotion and outsiders are shown as finding them hard to "read".
- Interchangeable Asian Cultures: Conflating different Asian cultures (e.g. Korean, Japanese and Chinese) with each other.
- Magical Asian: A wise Asian mentor, who is often very old, and has a wealth of cultural knowledge that outsiders (often white Westerners) lack.
- Mighty Whitey and Mellow Yellow
- Yellowface
- Yellow Peril
Eastern Europeans
- Circassian Beauty
- Commie Land
- Ruritania: A fictional Eastern European country.
- Sensual Slavs: Eastern European women are sexy.
- Überwald
- Ugly Slavic Women: Eastern European women are ugly and masculine-looking.
English
- English Rose: A beautiful young Englishwoman.
- London Gangster
- Oop North: Northern England, which is shown as poor and working class with quite distinctive accents.
- Smart People Speak the Queen's English
Europeans
Sub-index:
- Classical Music Is Boring
- Classical Music Is Cool
- Eurabia
- Europeans Are Kinky: Europeans are shown as having very out-there sexual fetishes and much freer attitudes towards sexuality and nudity than most of the world.
- Evil Colonialist : A fictional conqueror and exploiter of indigenous peoples will most likely be from Western Europe
- Medieval European Fantasy : A fantastic setting based on the European Middle Ages
- United Europe : Europe is unified as one country
French
- Cheese-Eating Surrender Monkeys: French soldiers are depicted as cowards.
- Everyone Looks Sexier if French
- Everything Sounds Sexier in French
- French Cuisine Is Haughty
- French Jerk: A French person who is mean.
- Gay Paree
- Maurice Chevalier Accent
Germans
- All Germans Are Nazis: Being German automatically makes you one of Those Wacky Nazis.
- Germanic Depressives: Germans are always dreary.
- Germanic Efficiency: Germans are obsessed with making everything efficient.
- German Humour
- Herr Doktor: A German doctor.
- Kaiserreich
- Oktoberfest
- Yodel Land
Greeks
- Ancient Grome: Mixing up ancient Greece and Rome.
- Gorgeous Greek
Indians/South Asians
- Asian Store-Owner: If Indian.
- Bollywood Nerd: An Indian who is highly intelligent.
- Mystical India
- Operator from India: Indians stereotypically tend to work in call centres or some kind of IT job.
- Stereotypical South Asian English
Irish
- Dublin Skanger
- Fighting Irish
- Irish Explosives Expert
- The Irish Mob
- Irish Priest
- Northern Irish and Nasty
- Officer O'Hara: The stereotypical Irish police officer.
- Oireland
- Scotireland: Confusing Irish stuff with Scottish stuff.
- St. Patrick's Day Episode
Italians
- Italians Talk with Hands: Italians are stereotyped as being animated and having highly exaggerated body language while talking.
- The Mafia
- Neighbourhood-Friendly Gangsters: If it's about The Mafia.
- Rambunctious Italian
- Spaghetti and Gondolas
Japanese
- Anime Land
- Asian Cleaver Fever
- The Idiot from Osaka: The streotype that people from the Kansai region (Osaka especially) are lower-class louts that are framed as the negative contrast to people from Tokyo.
- Japanese Delinquents
- Japanese Politeness: The stereotype that the Japanese are overly polite.
- Japanese Ranguage: The stereotype that the Japanese cannot distinguish L and R sounds.
- Japanese Spirit
- Japanese Tourist
- Japan Takes Over the World: A now-outdated prediction that Japan would dominate the global economy.
- Neighbourhood-Friendly Gangsters: If it’s about Yakuza.
- Thirty Seconds Over Tokyo: The portrayal of Japan as both traditional and futuristic.
- Yakuza: Japanese gangsters.
Jews
Sub-index:
- All Jews Are Ashkenazi: All Jews are shown being from the Eastern European Jewish subgroup rather than Sephardi (Mediterranean) Jews or Mizrahi (Middle Eastern) Jews.
- All Jews Are Cheapskates: Jews don't like spending too much money.
- Ambiguously Jewish: A character isn't stated to be Jewish, but has hints of being Jewish or is played by an actor known to be Jewish.
- Badass Israeli: Instead of the Nice Jewish Boy who may be something of a wimp, this stereotype instead shows Jews as being tough and skilled fighters from Israel's mandatory military service.
- Gentile Jew-Chaser
- Greedy Jew: Jews are shown as loving money and doing unethical things to get it.
- Jewish American Princess: A young Jewish woman who is spoiled.
- Jewish and Nerdy
- Jewish Complaining: Jews constantly kvetch.
- Jewish Mother: Jews are shown as having My Beloved Smother as a parent.
- Jews Love to Argue: In Jewish culture, having heated debates about all kinds of things is shown as normal.
- Kosher Nostra
- Magical Jew
- Nice Jewish Boy: A mild-mannered Jewish young man who is seen as an ideal mate.
- Sizable Semitic Nose
Latin Americans
Sub-index:
- Banana Republic
- Brownface: Caucasians (and other non-Latino people) wear makeup to perform offensive portrayals of Latin Americans.
- The Capital of Brazil Is Buenos Aires
- The Cartel: Latin Americans may be stereotyped as in the illegal drug trade.
- Dashing Hispanic
- Latin Land
- Latin Lover
- Latino Is Brown: Even though Latin Americans can be any colour and are quite diverse in skin tone, they are mostly shown as neither white nor black but in between.
- Macho Latino: Latino men are shown to be aggressively manly by their cultural standards, something called machismo.
- Spicy Latina: Latina women are shown to be sexy and emotionally feisty.
Mexicans
- Bandito
- Calacas
- Gratuitous Mariachi Band
- Lazy Mexican: Mexicans are lazy and nap under ponchos and sombreros instead of working.
- Magnificent Moustaches of Mexico: Latino men, especially Mexicans, are stereotyped as tending to have large and bold moustaches.
- Masked Luchador
- Mayincatec: If using the Maya and Aztec parts only.
- Sombrero Equals Mexican
- Spexico: Mexican culture gets confused with Spanish culture.
- South of the Border
- Wild West Armadillo: If a Mexican one.
Middle Easterners
- All Muslims Are Arab: Although most Arabs are Muslim and the religion of Islam comes from Arabia, most Muslims today are from outside the Arab world.
- Arab Beoble Talk: Arabic is one of the few big world languages that doesn't have a /p/ sound, which leads to a noticeable accent.
- Arab Oil Sheikh
- "Arabian Nights" Days
- Egypt Is Still Ancient
- Eurabia
- Middle Eastern Coalition
- Middle Eastern Terrorists
- Qurac
- Sizable Semitic Nose: If they're Arabs, which they usually are.
Native Americans
Sub-index:
Pacific Islanders
Russians
- The Backwards Я
- Chummy Commies: Less common than...
- Dirty Communists: If set during the Soviet Union.
- Fake Russian
- Glorious Mother Russia: Russians are shown as highly patriotic and boastful of their country.
- Heroic Russian Émigré
- Husky Russkie: A Russian who is large and intimidating.
- The Mafiya
- Make the Bear Angry Again
- Mother Russia Makes You Strong
- Renegade Russian
- Russian Guy Suffers Most: Out of a Multinational Team, the one who goes through a lot of pain is likely Russian or at least Slavic.
- Russia Takes Over the World
- That Russian Squat Dance
- Vodka Drunkenski: Russians are stereotyped as extremely heavy drinkers and especially having a love for vodka.
Scandinavians
- Horny Vikings: Vikings wear horned helmets.
- Norse by Norsewest
- Sexy Scandinavian
Scots
- Brave Scot
- Man in a Kilt: Scottish men wear kilts.
- Scotireland: Confusing Scottish stuff with Irish stuff.
- Thrifty Scot
- Violent Glaswegian
Spaniards
- Dashing Hispanic: Spanish men are attractive.
- Spexico: Confusing Mexican stuff with Spanish stuff.
- Toros y Flamenco
South Americans
- Banana Republic
- Gaucho
- Mayincatec: If you use or base on the Incan part.
- The Pampas
- The Capital of Brazil Is Buenos Aires
Southeast Asians
- Holiday in Cambodia: A stereotypical Southeast Asia that's a rough and brutal place, poor and corrupt and wartorn, whose main industries are drugs and prostitution. Comes from fiction about the Vietnam War era that isn't accurate today and doesn't apply to the whole region.
Swiss
